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A lord of the manor tricked an art dealer into buying a fake L.S. Lowry painting for £330,000 at a meeting in his room at London's Ritz hotel. Lord Maurice Taylor claims he told 'little white lies' so it would sound better

Lord of the manor ‘tried to sell fake Lowry for £330,000 at meeting in Ritz hotel’
By Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 12:49 AM on 25th February 2009
Lord Maurice Taylor claims he told ‘little white lies’ so it would sound better
A lord of the manor tricked an art dealer into buying a fake L.S. Lowry painting for £330,000 at a meeting in his room at London’s Ritz hotel.

Lord Maurice Taylor – who also calls himself Lord Windsor – convinced the dealer the painting known as Mill Street Scene was genuine by revealing it had been given an auction value of £450,000 by Bonhams Auctioneers, Chester Crown Court was told.

But when David Smith, Managing Director of Neptune Fine Arts, checked with another dealer after paying over most of the cash, he discovered the picture was a well-known forgery on the Manchester art scene, said Sion Ap Mihangel, prosecuting.

Lord Taylor, 60, who lives in a mansion near Congleton, Cheshire, told a number of dealers including Mr Smith that he had bought the painting from a Manchester industrialist named Eddie Rossenfield in the early 1970s.

But in fact he had purchased it in 2004 from a dealer called Martin Heaps for £7,500, knowing it was not an original, said Mr Ap Mihangel.

Members of the jury were shown the painting, a snowy mill scene with ‘matchstick figures’ in the foreground.

It may have looked like a Lowry – but in fact it as only ‘in the style of’ and Lord Taylor must have been aware of the fact, the jury was told.

Lord Taylor denies six counts of fraud and one of forging an invoice to cover his tracks.
David Smith, the alleged victim of the swindle, told the court he specialises in the fine arts, especially paintings by Lowry.

Towards the end of 2007 he was tipped off by a dealer in fine arts in London that a
‘Lord Windsor’ was interested in selling the Mill Street Scene.